Monday, September 3, 2012

Add Robinson Cano To The List of The Walking Wounded

We all were watching when Robinson Cano let that ground ball past him and allowed the eventual game winning run to score for the Rays. We were all also watching when Cano was seen grimacing afterwards in obvious pain. Cano has been diagnosed with a mild hip strain after that play and is day to day. He iced it down after the game and will get treatment tomorrow before the Yankees decide if he will play or not.

If he can play and not be a total liability or risk hurting himself more seriously I really think he has to play right now. We have Alex Rodriguez back and Curtis Granderson should be back tomorrow before Mark Teixeira arrives on Thursday so the team is starting to take shape and we cannot afford to lose Cano for ANY period of time.

The Yankees are faced with a number of issues in the short-term and long-term, writes Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Among their long-term issues is the fact that their position player average age is 32.7 years. One scout is also concerned that Robinson Cano hasn't looked like himself lately which is an unfortunate development for the Yanks as they appear to be intent on locking him up for the long-term._________________________________________________________________Not being a close follower of the Yanks, is Heyman correct about Cano "tailing off" lately, or have injuries contributed to what might be considered a slump? Also,is the Farm System geared up to replace the older (not old) players as they age out? IMO, an average age of 32.5 is nothing to have a panic attack over, because first of all averages are misleading. Is that the average age of the starting position players, the five SPs and the closer? Or does the "average" include players like Andruw Jones, backups, and easily replaceable middle relievers. Secondly, many players are highly productive until they're 37 or 38. So is this much doodoo about nothing?

I dont worry about the average age because we have been relying on aging veteran bench players like 40 year old Ibanez, Andruw Jones, Ichiro, Eric Chavez etc etc etc. Mariano Rivera being 42 probably does not help that average either and who would have expected a 38 year old Jeter being as good as he has been.

With that said Cano is hitting over .300 with 29 home runs and edging near 80 RBIs. I dont call that tailing off I call that expecting too much out of a guy if that is not good enough.